GlobLog - October 2004
A direct link to each entry is obtained by using the button below the entry.

17:30 - ANOTHER BLOW TO GOOD JOURNALISM: The best source on Asia for us far from the Far East, Far Eastern Economic Review, will be discontinued as a weekly. What is the western media supposed to plagiarise now?

11:04 - MORE ON PUBLIC SERVICE: In Expressen today I write a follow-up to the article that led to the suspension of renowned Swedish radio journalist Cecilia Uddén. I agree with the critics who say that journalism is never free from opinions – but why does that have to mean that it’s the same views everywhere? (She writes today as well.)

10:54 - CLARIFICATION: Since some misinterpreted it, I want to make it clear that the endorsement below is The Economist’s. The fact that I agree with its criticism of Bush does not mean that I share the conclusion. I would probably cast a protest vote on the Libertarians, and I still don’t endorse anyone for president, except possibly Schwarzenegger.

19:01 - THE ALIBI HAS LEFT THE BUILDING: The tax-financed Swedish network for "development cooperation", Forum Syd, distributes resources to some good causes, but also to publicity for the Cuban dictatorship and to propaganda meetings with representatives of the North Korean tyranny and a hijacker from the terror organisation PFLP.

For years, Forum Syd got legitimacy from the membership of non-socialist groups, such as the Liberal Youth, who tried to change the organisation. But they failed. When their chairman recently argued for an end to resources to groups who support dictatorships they have been booed at the Forum Syd meeting.

Now the Liberal Youth leaves the organisation. Very good. All supporters of democracy and human rights should do the same, and then Swedish taxpayers can decide whether they want to see their hard-earned incomes in the pockets of the remaining Castro-fans.

14:22 - THE ECONOMIST ENDORSES KERRY: The magazine with the best judgement in the world, The Economist, just endorsed John Kerry as US president – "with a heavy heart". I agree with the arguments: Bush is right in his efforts to bring democracy to the Middle East, but he has made it harder than it had to be by making big mistakes when it comes to rebuilding Iraq, and in dealing with prisoners-of-war outside the law. This has made America hated around the world, and makes it more difficult to win the real war – the war of ideas. And Bush never admits mistakes and learns from them. Furthermore, Kerry would be more of a social liberal than this ally of the Christian right, and probably more fiscally conservative than this great spender.

But I think The Economist is a bit too optimistic about Kerry. Especially when it comes to trade. If Kerry does as he says, he might destroy the multilateral trade system, and the WTO will be meaningless. That would be a disaster. If he is lying about this I think he might be a better president. But I´m not sure that I want a liar as president.

11:25 - POPULAR DISSIDENT: Christian Gergils writes about his participation in the agricultural reality show Farmen Skärgården. He says the show illustrates the breakdown of responsibility and work ethic. A lot of the participants are perfectly happy sunbathing and letting the minority do the work. When they are questioned, they just point to the right of the majority to rule. How can a society and a welfare state survive that? Christian says this to the others on the show and confronts them – and he has actually been the most popular participant every single week, according to the viewers.

As a recent convert to reality shows, I think Gergils is right. And his own success means that the show is not merely about the fall of the welfare state – it’s also about the rebirth of personal responsibility.

07:38 - BUSH HATRED OVER THE EDGE: Today in Dagens Nyheter/Kultur I make the case that Stefan Jonsson in a review of Nicholson Baker’s novel Checkpoint discusses whether it would be right to kill president Bush. Jonsson writes that the possible murderer in the novel combines "desperation and clear-sightedness". The only place where he criticises the murderous idea is when he says that it is not practically possible - he never says it’s a bad or immoral idea, or anything like that. Stefan Jonsson responds that I am extreme, unethical and a liar. Read his review and make up your own mind.

12:29 - I JUST GOT A NEW BOSS:  1 January 2005, Cecilia Stegö Chiló will become the new president of Timbro. It’s an excellent choice – she is a gifted and charming thinker and writer with experiences from politics, journalism and business, at home and abroad. She is also an excellent networker, who will give the whole market-liberal sphere in Sweden a healthy boost of energy and inspiration. With her at the helm I am sure that Timbro will continue the successful path that Mattias Bengtsson laid out. It will be a pleasure for us at Timbro, and a headache for the statists in media and politics.

09:54 - THEY KNEW IT ALL ALONG: Wonderful! Science tells us that the future will be like Gene Roddenberry´s vision, and the past was like Tolkien´s world. At least there were hobbits...

12:19 - PUBLIC SERVICE FOR PROTECTIONISM: Yesterday SVT’s Uppdrag Granskning warned the viewers about toys from China, because of the bad working conditions there. But as Peter Wennblad point out in Expressen, it was not a documentary, it was advertisement for protectionism. The film was paid for by the trade union LO, which organises workers in the industries that compete with China’s factories. And the film was done by Swedwatch, a lobby group financed by SIDA – the government’s foreign aid agency – but with the mission not to promote, but to warn about Swedish investments in poor countries. And the reporter, working at Swedwatch, was also the one who commented the film in the studio.

If someone thought that the left-wing bias in public service would disappear with Cecilia Uddén suspended, they have already been proven wrong.

08:37 - QUARANTINE: As a result of her statements for partial and subjective journalism in my debate with her yesterday, Cecilia Uddén has been stopped from reporting from the American election for Swedish radio, and temporarily her radio show will have another host. As far as I know, this is a unique measure. You would think I’d welcome it. But not really. Uddén was honest and frank, which I respect, and for that, she is punished. At the same time, a lot of news journalists act in the same way and are just as subjective, but never say it openly. That seems to be ok as long as they don’t admit it.

11:04 - COMEBACK MATTIAS: The columnist with the sharpest tongue in Sweden is back in Metro. Cheer him on!

08:18 - OUT OF THE IMPARTIALITY CLOSET: 7.21 this morning I debated my Expressen article with renowned Swedish public service journalist and radio show host Cecilia Uddén, in P1-morgon. She said that there was something to my story about the Kerry bias in the Swedish media, and she said she couldn’t understand how anyone could vote for Bush. And she said that it is not a problem that these personal views have an effect on the reports:

"Och jag tycker heller inte att svenska medier har något som helst krav på sig på opartiskhet när det gäller valet i USA. Vi har ju ingen anledning att vara opartiska och redovisa båda ståndpunkter på samma sätt som vi skulle göra i ett svenskt val. Det gör vi ju heller inte i andra internationella frågor. Vi skulle inte göra så i valet i Tunisien eller Saddam Hussein eller något annat."

I agree – anyone should feel free to, for example, compare the world’s biggest democracy with Saddam’s tyranny (after all, I can listen to something else). But that is not the idea behind public service (“impartial and objective”).

00:16 - BIBLIOTEKSDEBATTEN: VAD HÄNDE SEN?: För några veckor sedan gjorde jag och Björn Walllace en studie om bibliotekens vänstervridning. Det visade sig att på folkbibliotek och skolbibliotek köps en genomsnittlig vänsterbok in fyra gånger så ofta som en liberal bok. Den vänsterbok i vår studie som var minst vanlig var oftare förekommande än den liberala bok som var vanligast.

Det finns ingen anledning att klaga på uppmärksamheten. Vi fick en DN debatt, TV, radio och mängder av uppmärksamhet i lokalpressen. Många bibliotekarier har hört av sig till oss och intygat att bokinköpen politiserats, och besökare har berättat hur de bryskt har avvisats när de har frågat efter en liberal bok. Biblioteksföreningen gick ut och förklarade att detta var nys och att allting sker på rent sakliga och opolitiska grunder. Eftersom ordföranden var Britta Lejon – som bara har posten eftersom hon är tidigare socialdemokratiskt statsråd och nu riksdagsledamot, så föll det utspelet lite på eget grepp.

Men på ett ställe har det varit helt tyst: Kultursidorna. På den arena där kulturen, litteraturen och biblioteken brukar debatteras har det såvitt jag kan se inte publicerats en enda artikel om detta, inte en enda redovisning av våra uppgifter, och inte en tillstymmelse till motargument. Vad är det, om inte en bekräftelse på att vår tes om vänstervridningen av det svenska kulturklimatet är alldeles korrekt?

Ursula Berge, chef för vänstertankesmedjan Agora, föreslog för ett tag sedan mig att det berodde på att vår undersökning var dålig. Genom att jämföra min Till världskapitalismens försvar med Naomi Kleins No Logo och genom att jämföra en bok om vattenprivatisering av Fredrik Segerfeldt med en motsvarande bok av Vandana Shiva, så hade vi blivit för personliga och jämfört några svenska liberaler med vänsterns världsstjärnor.

Låt gå för det. Även om jag fortfarande tycker att biblioteken ska ha båda perspektiven med (och var så säker, de har det inte genom att ha liberalismens världsstjärnor) så kan jag köpa det argumentet. Därför gjorde jag idag om undersökningen, med min och Kleins böcker borttagna, och Shivas bok om vatten ersatt med den som Berge tipsade mig om Ann-Christin Sjölander Hollands Vatten – rättighet eller handelsvara.

Vad blir då resultatet? Den snedvridning åt vänster som var 4,0 enligt vår undersökning ökar med Berges urval till hela 4,3. Om vår undersökning var orättvisande tidigare var det alltså för att den underskattade vänsterdominansen på biblioteken.

Passa på att läsa om det jag har skrivit här en gång till. Du lär aldrig kunna läsa om det på någon kultursida.

22:46 - OCTOBER SURPRISE: Wow, an article in New York Times suggests that Bush’s IQ is higher than Kerry’s – mid-120s vs 120. (But keep in mind that Nixon – probably the worst president since the second world war – is said to have had an IQ of 143.)

21:11 - IN THE BEST OF WORLDS: As you know, I would vote for Captain James "It is the nature of our species to be free” Kirk for American president, but I also like the UK viewers choice: Homer T Simpson. In the year of Super Size Me, when both presidential candidates are in favour of big government, Homer definitely has the best slogan:

"No big government, just big waist sizes."

16:53 - SWEDISH LIBERAL BLOGS: Yes, we’re everywhere.

16:11 - LUNDBLAD ON HAYEK: Nicklas Lundblad is one of Sweden’s most interesting thinkers, especially about technology, law and freedom. Today he writes about how Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom can explain current debates in Svenska Dagbladet.

09:36 - LESS THAN A GUY IN PAJAMAS: In Expressen today I examine how Swedish media report from the American election. My conclusion is that Swedish papers, radio and television are less fair and balanced than Fox. And let me make this absolutely clear: I don’t attack their one-sided non-journalistic propaganda because I like Bush. I don’t. I attack it because they make every reasonable individual who thinks for himself wish that Bush will win, so that Swedish journalists lose.

08:53 - MORE THAN GUYS IN PAJAMAS: Since I started this globblog, blogs have really taken off in Sweden. So now it’s time for the first big Swedish debate about the phenomena and its consequences, Bloggforum in Stockholm on Monday 15 November. I will be there to debate the political consequences with other Swedish bloggers. No dress code.

18:42 - THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GOOGLE: Feminist writer Linda Skugge says she is ”the greatest”, because she has 12 800 hits on Google. In an amusing response Johnny Munkhammar points out that I have almost 30 000 and Margaret Thatcher has 239 000. And Stalin has 825 000 – so he is not sure about what this proves.

18:03 - THE WORLD ACCORDING TO CONSPIRACY THEORISTS: I just learned that Bush is like a nazi and his grandfather worked for Hitler – and he is working for jews. He is completely controlled by neoconservaties and Israel – and he is completely controlled by their enemies in Saudi-Arabia. His family is obsessed with hatred towards Saddam – and, as vice president, his father installed Saddam as dictator. At least according to the documentary The World According to Bush, on Dokument utifrån. (Footnote: Saddam got power in 1968 and made himself dictator in 1979, Bush the elder became vice president in 1981.)

17:18 - CONFIDENCE TRICKSTERS IN PUBLIC SERVICE: Plus is the big Swedish public service TV show about consumer issues, self-confidently aggressive towards all evil companies out there. The only problem is that they are in the business of deceit themselves. In Expressen yesterday (not on the web), Mattias Svensson explains how he approached ´Plus´ with facts about how he was ripped off by his insurance company. ´Plus´ was very interested and interviewed him about this. Later on, Mattias understood that he had done a miscalculation and that the company hadn’t fooled him. He told ´Plus´, and they said that they already knew it, but didn’t care, they were going to run it anyway. They just took out the footage where he did the specific calculations, but kept his angry comments about the company to create a false impression:

"Men i intervjun säger jag i stort sett bara saker som är relaterade till denna felräkning. Tre gånger upprepar jag i inslaget att mitt sparande trots god värdeutveckling inte går med plus efter avgifter och skatter. Precis det påstående som ´Plus´-journalisten redan från början visste var fel.
´Plus´ borde naturligtvis ha slängt reportaget i sin soptunna, men valde att sända det trots sakfelen. Jag kan inte frigöra mig från misstanken att det inte är något unikt exempel på hur journalistik bedrivs idag. Hur många snyftreportage görs utan koll på om de påstådda offren verkligen vet vad de pratar om? I det här fallet var det faktiskt småspararen (och public service-programmet) som hade fel och det skamfilade storföretaget som var utan skuld. Hur ofta presenterar våra medier berättelser med sådan sensmoral?"

12:19 - KERRY´S UNILATERAL TRADE WAR: Many complain about Bush’s unilateral foreign policy, but why do so few criticise Kerry’s unilateral protectionism? Kerry wants to punish jobs abroad and subsidise old industry at home; he demands labour standards in trade agreements so that poor countries won’t be able to compete; he wants to reintroduce the “super 301”-provision, which gives the US the right to introduce tariffs arbitrarily; and within 120 days he will review all trade agreements.

As I have said so many times, I am disappointed in Bush’s protectionist measures, but Kerry supported the steel tariffs and only criticises Bush for having abolished them. And whereas most Senate Republicans voted against the farm bill, Kerry and Edwards consistently voted for subsidies to big farms, and against the world’s poor. So, as I said on the radio show Godmorgon, världen! this morning, when it comes to trade, and for the sake of the world’s poor, I prefer a cowardly free trader to a courageous protectionist in the White House.

14:20 - BUT IT SOUNDS LIKE GOSPLAN: ”I like what it sounds like”
– Mona Sahlin, Sweden’s new samhällsbyggnadsminister about the word samhällsbyggnadsminister, Ekots lördagsintervju.

15:04 - NOTES ON COMMUNISM: Communism is still alive – unlike the perhaps 100 million people it killed during the 20th century. It is for example alive in the Swedish left party. Therefore, I have written an article with Kristian Karlsson about how Hayek proved that the planned economy always leads to dictatorship and political terror – published in seven papers. And in a letter to Dagens Nyheter today I explain why the Indian Kerala is not a counterexample – the communists who have ruled there from time to time has never tried to abolish private property and introduce a planned economy. Therefore, they have lacked the economic control that always result in political control.

By the way, did you know that communism is the only economical system that can be seen from outer space? (Thanks Eudoxa)

10:41 - I WOULD PREFER A MINISTER FOR SILLY WALKS: Do you want a definition of irony? Yesterday, Timbro published the 60th anniversary translation of The Road to Serfdom, where Hayek warns us about the blind faith in constructivism and the centrally planned society. At the same time, Sweden’s prime minister appointed his first “samhällsbyggnadsminister”, Mona Sahlin. I have a hard time explaining this new ministerial post in English, but here are some suggestions:

Minister for social structure

Minister for societal structure

Minister for societal restructuring

Minister for societal planning

Minister for social planning

Minister for the building of society

Minister for construction of society

Minister for reconstruction of society

14:30 - IS THE DISCLOSURE HALF FULL OR HALF EMPTY?: Wow, here is a fascinating fact: The president of CMPA, Robert Lichter, the organisation behind the study on Fox and the media, joined Fox News Channel in 1996 as a regular commentator on the media.

12:51 - FILLING A VOID: Several perceptive readers noticed that the CMPA-report about American media I referred to was only about September, and that we should have a longer perspective. They are right. An earlier report (pdf), for example, showed that Fox News Channel was "about as negative towards Bush as the broadcast networks, but Kerry´s evaluations were negative by a five-to-one margin." And it’s also worth mentioning that Fox panelists’ comments favoured Bush by 50% positive to 13% positive toward Kerry.

But I haven’t doubted for a second that Fox is partisan and propagandistic, and everybody knows it is. That’s why I am still most surprised and concerned that in the networks "Evaluations of John Kerry were positive by a two-to-one margin, while evaluations of George W. Bush were over 60 percent negative". If anyone wondered why there is a demand for Fox News Channel, here is the answer.

00:35 - CYBERFRIENDS: Now there is – yes, you probably guessed it – another Swedish liberal blog. Pär Henriksson, a very insightful and extremely nice guy with whom I share a fascination for single malts, just started Södertankar. The Swedish blogosphere is beginning to look a bit like an afterwork party at Timbro. Come on socialists: Where are you? Are you too content with mainstream media to care?

00:15 - FOX - FAIR AND BALANCED (THIS IS NOT A JOKE): I really don’t like Fox News. I find it partisan, propagandistic and anti-intellectual (and I don´t understand why their hosts shout). But how does that make them different from the other channels? Only in the regard that Fox is republican and not democratic. So Fox creates some balance. As a matter of fact, the latest study (pdf) from the Center for media and public affairs suggests that Fox is slightly less partisan in its news coverage than the big networks, especially compared to ABC – with 38% positive for Kerry and 20 percent for Bush:

"In [Fox’] "Special Report" news segments, the coverage was balanced – 27% positive for Bush and 24% for Kerry. Fox was also more balanced in its issue coverage (30% positive for Bush vs. 28% for Kerry) than the broadcast network (41% positive for Kerry vs. 23% positive for Bush)." (Erixon saw this, of course.)

18:35 - FELLOWSHIP 9/11: One thing I’ve wondered about since I read Tolkien is why the coalition of the willing chose to attack Sauron, when they were only attacked by Saruman. And isn’t it true that Gandalf had friendly relations with Saruman before the war? And why didn’t the fellowship stop the attack at Helm’s deep before it happened? At last, the lies of the Aragorn administration are exposed, in the short film Fellowship 9/11. Brilliant.

17:54 - A UNITER: I was just asked why I don’t appreciate John Kerry more. After all, he’s on my side (and your too).

10:48 - 77 PERCENT CAN READ THIS: Right now I am busy updating the Swedish edition of In Defence of Global Capitalism. Since the world keeps improving, the figures must constantly be updated. Here is one example: Did you know that illiteracy in developing countries has been reduced by ten percentage points since 1990? According to UNESCO, 23 percent of adults in poor countries are illiterate today, down from 70 percent in 1950.

The gender gap is steadily being reduced. If present trends continue, men and women will be equally literate within 40 years. That’s a long time from now indeed, but since this gap has been around since the invention of writing about 6 000 years ago, we certainly live in interesting times.

14:01 - WHAT WOULD HE SAY ABOUT CLOUSEAU?: In an interesting piece on Amerikabrev.nu, Anders Ydstedt compares Tom Clancy’s hero Jack Ryan with the most famous Swedish fictional agent, Jan Guillou’s Carl Hamilton. They are very much alike in personality and profession, but there are differences: Ryan is a self-made man from the working-class, whereas Hamilton is an upper-class hero. And Hamilton’s foremost strenght is not his personal intelligence or capabilities, but that he knows the difference between what politicians say and what they mean. So if you want to understand the hypocritical Swedish foreign policy since the 1930’s, and our lack of social mobility, read our crime stories.

10:45 - KERRY´S UNILATERAL WAR: At last a Swede warns that John Kerry is a unilateral protectionist who wants to subsidise old industries and start a trade war with the rest of the world, by reviewing all existing trade arrangements. Hans Bergström is the author, of course. Our only hope is that Kerry is a liar.

07:49 - STUPID PEOPLE: Hey, it was Annika Billström who needed to understand that there is natural aggressiveness in the world, not me. How typical then, that the first football match I’ve visited in 20 years – AIK-Hammarby on Råsunda last night ended in the worst riots in years, with violent clashes between hooligans and the police, which interrupted the game for 45 minutes. Water canons vs every imaginable object thrown at policemen and staff, young kids trying to destroy and attack, stirred up by older and more fluent fanatics. Actually, it was very much like an anti-globalisation protest against the EU or WTO.

11:40 - LYSENKOISM: Kids throwing stones at trains and buses have forced the companies to close down traffic lines in Tensta and to Nynäshamn. Because of this, the social democrat mayor of Stockholm, Annika Billström, said that this was the time for strong action: She wanted to talk to these kids and ask them what it is that society and adults have failed to do, which turned them into stone throwers.

Wow, I thought. In Billström’s universe everyone is calm, kind and understand the consequences of their actions, and if someone ever does anything bad, this is because politicians have failed to implement the correct social policies. She has what Sowell calls an “unconstrained” view of human nature. There is no such thing as natural aggressiveness, and there is always a rational reason for bizarre actions.

I guess that Billström doesn’t have any sons. Because young boys don’t throw stones because it’s a social message. They do it because it’s fun.

In an excellent article, P M Nilsson destroys Billström’s world view by explaining how he and other boys from good families – performing well in school and satisfied with their leisure time – used to throw stones and attack cars and buses. And his conclusion is that if Billström had asked them what was their message they would have despised such stupidity. But if a policeman had come to school to tell them that they risked other’s lives, and that their parents would have to pay for all the damage, they would probably have thought twice. They didn’t need “understanding” for their actions, they needed to be told about the consequences of their actions.

Grow up, Billström!

15:13 - TAKTIK & TRUBBEL: I senaste Svensk Tidskrift (5-2004) blandar sig Carl Bildt i diskussionen om moderaternas balansgång mellan värderingar och väljarmaximering:

"Även om det är djärvt att våga generaliseringar skulle jag nog vilja påstå att taktikdominerade perioder alltid leder till problem, medan idédominerade diton i alla fall har förutsättningar att leda till framgång"

15:59 - 100 YEARS IS A LONG TIME IN POLITICS: Today the Swedish moderate party celebrates its 100 years of existence. It has never really been a moderate party. From the start it was a horribly conservative party opposed to personal liberties, religious freedom and universal suffrage. It was strongly hostile to the socialist movement, but wanted more government intervention in the economy, socialised the mining industries, introduced subsidies for companies and farmers and was in favour of nationalism and protectionism.

But just like many other conservative parties they lost all the big fights, and began to understand that other important values of the western civilisation were being threatened by the expanding state. After 70 years of step-by-step changes, the party chairman Gösta Bohman declared that the moderates had become the classical liberal party in Sweden, in favour of the rule of law, free markets, free trade, and a free people. More Bastiat, less Bismarck. The moderates became the strongest voice against the Swedish welfare state, and the youth and student organisations turned into libertarians, in favour of a minimal state and free immigration. From one extreme to the other.

But after a humiliating electoral defeat in 2002, the new chairman, Fredrik Reinfeldt has decided that the party must abandon the radical views. Now they moderate the tax cuts and try to make friends with the unions by accepting the regulated labour market. More Kohl, less Cobden. I am not happy with this transition, but Reinfeldt thinks that this is the only way to win elections in Sweden. I am afraid he’s got a point. The new policies are popular in the polls (from 15 to 27 percent in two years). And this makes it so much more important for us outside the parties to influence people’s political thoughts. For what use is a new government if it doesn’t implement new policies?

The one thing we know for certain is that, after 100 years, the moderates have a name that suits them.

14:53 - A LITTLE STORY ABOUT NGO-IMPERIALISM: Once upon a time the World Bank promoted a dam near the source of the river Nile. But the Californian NGO The International Rivers Network from California, explained that the environmental movement in Uganda was outraged at the damage to waterfalls at the site, and that poor inhabitants would be uprooted from their land for the sake of electricity for the rich.

You’ve heard this scenario before. So had Sebastian Mallaby, who writes about this in Foreign Policy and in his new book, The World’s Banker. Mallaby went to Uganda to get to the bottom of this story. When he asked the network about this huge environmental movement they told him that it happened to be preoccupied just then. But he went ahead and contacted them, and they welcomed him.

"When I arrived, the group’s young director sat me down and plied me with leaflets and reports that gratefully acknowledged the sponsorship of a group called the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation. After half an hour of conversation, I asked the question that really concerned me: What kind of organization was this?

´This is a membership organization,´ I was told.

´How many members?´ I asked. My host kindly stood up and rummaged about in his desk, returning with a blue notebook.

´Here is the list,´ he said triumphantly. Uganda’s National Association of Professional Environmentalists had all of 25 members—not exactly a broad platform from which to oppose electricity for millions."

And Mallaby went on to talk to others than these 25 Sweden-financed environmentalists, and none of them agreed with the small group. The poor preferred electricity to clinics and factories and the generous financial terms for relocation, to the eco-Swedish worldview:

"The only people who objected to the dam were those living just outside its perimeter. They were angry because the project would not affect them, meaning no generous payout."

09:46 - THE PRESIDENT DOESN´T LEAVE US ALONE: Grover Norquist is one of the architects of the "leave us alone"-coalition – the excellent Reaganesque idea that the American center-right, from arch-conservatives to libertarians, can be united on a platform of less government interference in the affairs of individuals, families and communities. The idea is that reactionaries should accept not to force their ideas on other people, if they in turn are not subjected to the coercion of others.

In a Wall Street Journal piece, Norquist argues that this coalition is intact: "The lesson of the last four years is that the limited government, pro-free trade, and immigrant-friendly Reagan coalition remains intact." I hope he is right, but I am not so sure in a world where a conservative president favors a federal ban on gay marriage, implemented steel tariffs, and expands the federal budget.

07:40 - FELLOW TRAVELLERS: Svensk-kubanska föreningen is the Swedish pro-Castro movement. The Left Party’s Lars Ohly is a member, and the party’s board member Eva Björklund is a member of the board. Their chairman, Martin Österlin, insist that Cuba is an excellent democracy. To clarify his ideas on democracy, about 15 minutes ago he was interviewed by P1 Morgon:

"–Was the Soviet Union a dictatorship?"

"–No."

16:10 - THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD: Just like last year the business magazine Affärsvärlden think that I am one of the 100 Swedes younger than 40 with most power.

15:50 - TOUGH ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION: A friend just told me that the most fascinating comment in the last presidential debate was John Kerry’s:

"It´s against the law in the United States to hire people illegally"

14:28 - THOSE WHO THINK THE RENAISSANCE JUST HAPPENED TO OTHER PEOPLE: The worst thing is not that Lars Ohly and his left party supported tyrannies in the past. It is that the future leaders of the party do the same today. Read Sofia Nerbrand about this in Svenska Dagbladet today (full disclosure: she is my fiancée).

13:14 - LITTERATURKRITIK: Boris Benulic, en hejdlöst god skribent och en av få företrädare för en frihetlig vänster i Sverige, skriver idag i Metro det de flesta nog tycker om att den dunderirrelevanta Elfriede Jelinek får nobelpriset i litteratur:

"Kära Elfriede, vi vet redan hur jävligt det är i världen och vi känner oss inte mer upplysta av dina verk… Horace säger att han hade svårt att ta sig in i hennes verk. Bör Jelinek då inte byta sysselsättning? De stora författarna är ju de som skriver om svåra saker men som berättar så att vi trollbinds från det att vi läst de första orden. Horace odlar myten att stor litteratur är svår att begripa – kanske för att han själv skriver så tråkigt att man får injicera koffein direkt i frontalloben för att inte somna. Det räcker nu. Ta ifrån Akademien rätten att utse litteraturpristagare!"

12:35 - DÉJÀ VU: Isn’t there something vaguely familiar about Swedish politics today?

- The communists are real communists, and support dictatorships

- Union bosses visit porn clubs and buy sex toys on their members’ expense.

- The government disregard science and abolish nuclear power plants.

- The prime minister says that Sweden is the best country on the planet.

- The center-right opposition guarantee that they won’t change too much if they get power.

- There is no passion in politics, except when it comes to hatred of the American president.

My God, we’re back in the 1970s! So we´ve come this far, just to find ourselves back in the same position - only with better looking clothes.

12:26 - NO: I didn’t watch the presidential debate. I got so intellectually dried-out after the first two debates, so when I had assured myself that Bush didn’t have a box on his back this time, I saved time by reading Andrew Sullivan instead.

17:26 - MORE INTERESTING THAN THE NOBEL PRIZE: The Bastiat Prize

17:19 - REGIME OF MASS DESTRUCTION: Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. But if you want mass destruction, sometimes a lot of small caliber guns will do:

"U.S. forces have exhumed a mass graves site in northwestern Iraq and uncovered the remains of hundreds of people... The women – four or five of whom were pregnant – and children appear to have been killed with a single small caliber gunshot to the head...Human rights groups believe about 300,000 people were killed during Saddam´s 24-year rule, which ended when U.S.-led forces toppled his regime in 2003."

08:00 - BUTTOGLIONE - A CLOSET LIBERAL?: Yes, my first reaction was also that Italy’s new EU commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security, Rocco Buttiglione, should be rejected. After all, this man thinks that homosexuality is a sin. But then I remembered that he also said that homosexuality is not a crime, and should not be discriminated against. So Buttiglione made a clear distinction between personal, moral convictions and the law. Few modern politicians make that distinction. They never hesitate to force us to live according to their latest whims. If Buttoglione means what he says, he won’t join them. He might be this commission’s surprise liberal…

16:34 - AFTER COMMUNISM, CIVIL WAR AND TALEBANS: Often we forget the major events because we are too obsessed with small things. More interesting than the presidential debates in the US is the election in Afghanistan. It had several problems, but that was to be expected in a country that had never experienced anything close to democracy. Three years ago this country was controlled by a bizarre woman-hating religious sect. Now the people have elected its ruler. It might just be that something big just started in that region. As a Tajik, who voted for a Pashtun said:

"In the whole history of Afghanistan this is the first time we come and choose our leader in democratic process and free condition. I feel very proud and I feel very happy" (The Daily Dish)

14:48 - PLURALIS: After my comment about Bush’s three versions of Kim Jong-Il, one reader sent me Bush’s "There are rumors spreading on the internets"- comment. But I don’t think that was a mistake. I think it was a way to tease Al Gore. You see – that guy only invented one internet!

14:25 - ESCAPING COMMUNISM: Did you know how Uppdrag granskning got former Swedish communist leader, Lars Werner, to accept an interview about the party’s cosy friendship with dictators? By filming him trying to escape from the film team, and threatening to show this on television unless he accepted an interview, according to Journalisten.

10:10 - MY WORK METHODS REVEALED: And speaking of the TV8-interview last night, the producers needed some footage of me in my everyday work. It´s difficult to illustrate think-tank work. Can you guess what they picked? Footage of me talking to a colleague about the latest movies, and me getting myself a cup of coffee, and me walking through the corridors with the very same cup of coffee... ;-)

09:16 - MR HATT: Yesterday in a TV8-interview, I warned that the social democrats continuous grip on power changes the thinking of Swedish businesses as well. Today Peter Wolodarski reveals that the chief executive of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, Ebba Lindsö, has got herself a new speechwriter: Greger Hatt – social democrat and speechwriter for former prime minister Ingvar Carlsson (s). Now they are everywhere.

22:08 - LESSONS FOR EUROPE: Ok, I was 100 percent wrong in my speculations about the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. The winners are Finn E Kydland och Edward C Prescott. But we can probably learn something from them as well. Kydland has looked into how we can regain the benefits of the gold standard by limiting the scope for discretionary actions on the part of central bankers, and here is the summary of one of Prescotts papers (pdf):

"Americans now work 50 percent more than do the Germans, French, and Italians. This was not the case in the early 1970s, when the Western Europeans worked more than Americans. […] The surprising finding is that this marginal tax rate accounts for the predominance of differences at points in time and the large change in relative labor supply over time."

18:27 - KIRK & SPOCK IN ´04: There is a third alternative in this year’s presidential election. Or at least there should be. If you have paid attention to the classical Star Trek-series, you know that Captain Kirk already has the best slogans:

"Without freedom of choice, there is no creativity. Without creativity, there is no life."

"It is the nature of our species to be free."

"Leave bigotry in your quarters; there´s no room for it on the bridge."

"Our missions are peaceful – not for conquest. When we do battle, it is only because we have no choice."

"Only a fool stands in the way of progress."

"We prefer to help ourselves. We make mistakes, but we´re human – and maybe that´s the word that best explains us."

"Our species can only survive if we have obstacles to overcome. You remove those obstacles. Without them to strengthen us, we will weaken and die."

"No wants – no needs? We weren´t meant for that. None of us. Man stagnates if he has no ambition, no desire to be more than he is."

"What is man but that lofty spirit – that sense of enterprise?"

(Thanks to Mostly Harmless)

17:32 - HAYEK ALL WEEK: It is now 60 years since Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom was published, one of the most influential classical liberal books of the century. Timbro celebrates this with an entire week of Hayek seminars next week, with the launch of a new edition on Thursday as the highlight. If you are in Stockholm or Lund, use the chance to get a crash course in Hayekianism and spontaneous order!

Hayekvecka på Timbro:

Måndag kl 8–10 (18/10)
Hayekfrukost: Därför bör jurister läsa Hayek
Paula Werenfels Röttorp, biträdande jurist.
PLATS: Timbro, Grev Turegatan 19, Stockholm

Tisdag kl 8–10 (19/10)
Hayekfrukost: Hayeks betydelse som filosof
Ingemar Nordin, filosofiprofessor.
PLATS: Timbro, Grev Turegatan 19, Stockholm

Torsdag kl 18 (21/10)
Lanseringsfest – Vägen till träldom 60 år
Cecilia Brinck, frilansskribent
Per Ericson, ledarskribent på Svenska Dagbladet
Stig-Björn Ljunggren, statsvetare
PLATS: Clarion Hotel, Ringvägen 98, Stockholm
Vi bjuder på välkomstdrink och lättare förtäring.

Torsdag kl 17.30 (21/10)
Hayekkväll i Lund
Germund Hesslow, professor i neurofysiologi och docent i filosofi
PLATS: Grand Hotel, Bantorget, Lund
Vi bjuder på lättare förtäring från kl 17.30. Föreläsningen börjar kl 18.

Fredag kl 8–10 (22/10)
Hayekfrukost: Hayek och nationalekonomin
Peter Stein, civilekonom och författare till Att läsa Hayek.
PLATS: Timbro, Grev Turegatan 19, Stockholm

Alla arrangemang är kostnadsfria. Anmälan görs via e-post till info@timbro.se. Anmälan är bindande.

23:35 - TWO BRAVE MEN: On the other hand, Bush has some good tax policies, unlike Kerry. Dagens Nyheter’s former editor-in-chief, Hans Bergström writes about this. And by doing that, Bergström becomes the second public figure in Sweden to write positively about Bush during the campaign, after Per Ahlmark. That’s more than I expected.

16:59 - THE GREAT SPENDER: At the last debate, Bush claimed that: ”Non-homeland, non-defense discretionary spending was raising at 15 percent a year when I got into office. And today it´s less than 1 percent”. This is much more misleading than the inaccurate intelligence on WMDs in Iraq. Kevin Drum gives us the figures for the annual increases in non-defence discretionary spending over the past six administration:

Nixon/Ford: 6.8%
Carter: 2.0%
Reagan: -1.3%
Bush 1: 4.0%
Clinton: 2.5%
Bush Jr: 8.2%

13:53 - COMMUNIST INCONSISTENCY: I just watched the Left Party’s Eva Björklund in SVT24’s crossfire, Korseld, where she defended Castro as a democratic example for Sweden and refused to acknowledge that there are political prisoners on Cuba. The two excellent opponents completely destroyed all credibility she might have had. But one fascinating thing they didn’t pick up on was that Björklund at least twice complained that Western countries exploit and impoverish the third world with trade and investments AND several times she explained Cuba’s poverty with the American boycott.

Let’s see now, poor countries are poor because we trade with them – and Cuba is poor because the Americans (stupidly, by the way) don’t trade with them. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Or as Eva Björklund probably would phrase it: Imprisoned in slave labour camps if you do, imprisoned in slave labour camps if you don’t.

13:34 - CLARIFICATION: Yesterday I was interviewed by Dagens Industri about the new pragmatic policies of the moderate party (not on their site, as far as I can see). I am quoted as saying that I am surprised that only one MP has left the party. I am not. And I don’t urge people to leave the party, even though it has compromised far too much, especially on labour market policies. But I was asked if it isn’t surprising that one MP had left, and in that context I replied that it is more surprising that the change has been so smooth, and that only one MP had left the party. It was a retorical way of turning the question around, which looks odd when the question is not included in the article.

13:24 - BUSH VS JESUS: In this contest I wouldn’t hesitate to vote for the incumbent.

13:28 - HE GOT HIS NAME RIGHT: After one of the debates in 2000, George W Bush said ”The expectations were so low of me that all I had to do was show up and say my name is George W Bush and win the debate.” The debate last night was a repetition, since Bush had effectively lowered expectations with the first debate – you know, when he made funny faces, assured us that he had seen on television that it was hard work in Iraq, and when he broke his Milosevix record by pronouncing the North Korean dictator in three ways in one minute (”Kim Jing-Il”, ”Kim-Jong-Il” and ”Kim Chong-Il”).

In fact, Bush was likeable, relaxed and fairly focused last night. And since these debates are all about appearance (which makes me wonder why I keep watching them) he probably just won the election.

23:43 - SPOT THE DIFFERENCE: In February I wrote that president Bush’s opposition to gay marriage is a good reason not to vote for him. I still think so. But here I’ll add a good reason not to vote for John Kerry:

"The president and I have the same position, fundamentally, on gay marriage. We do. Same position."

14:33 - THEY KNOW WHAT WILL HIT THEM: The other night I was at the presentation of the book Sagan om välfärdens återkomst, by Johnny Munkhammar (only in Swedish so far). This is an important work, which shows trends that the politicians know about, but would rather die than tell their voters about.

It is about how an older and a more diverse population, an increasing share of the population outside the labour market, a bigger demand for health care and other services, the difficulty to increase productivity in services and the impossibility to raise taxes without damage to the economy, all conspire to bring down the Western European welfare state. And it tells us about a better, freer system, that will rise out of the ashes.

I think Johnny is a bit too deterministic when he talks about the future, but I really like and recommend the book. Important reading for those us who want to change the system. Necessary reading for those who want to conserve it. They will see what they are up against. Read Johnny’s brief presentation here (pdf).

11:35 - THE PEACE PRIZE: Good, Blix didn’t win. A Kenyan environmentalist who plant trees did. A quick look at her web site does not reveal any interest in the real problem of conservation: The tragedy of the commons. If no one owns the land, no one has an interest in protecting it from devastation. And less than 10 percent of Africa’s land is formally owned.

10:40 - PEACE IN OUR TIME: In 20 minutes time, the winner of the Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize will be announced. Rumour has it that the fight against nuclear proliferation will be awarded. In that case, the prize should definitely not go to the UN weapons inspector Hans Blix, who promised the world that Iraq was not up to anything before the Persian Gulf War of 1991. Afterwards, we understood that Saddam was about half a year from his first atomic bomb. And later on, Blix gave Iran the same clean bill of health. Now we now that he was deceived by the Mullahs as well.

But on the other hand, perhaps this man who always gives dictatorships the benefit of the doubt is a worthy recipient of a political "peace" prize that has been given to Arafat and Kissinger, and to Gorbachev - but not to Reagan.

23:33 - ABSOLUT OHLY: 

”Kan ni citera mig eller någon annan vänsterpartist som en enda gång brustit i demokratisk trovärdighet?"
Lars Ohly, vänsterpartiledare, Dagens Nyheter 24/2 2000

Ja:

"Inskränkningar i demokratiska fri- och rättigheter kan användas i arbetarklassens intresse."
Lars Ohly, debattinlägg i Kommunistisk ungdoms interna tidning 1983

"För mig är demokrati inte enbart demokratiska fri- och rättigheter i form av mötesfrihet, yttrandefrihet, strejkrätt m.m. Demokrati måste också innefatta avskaffandet av utsugningen och klassförtrycket. Med en mer fullständig syn på demokratin så blir det inte så enkelt längre att fördöma de socialistiska staterna som odemokratiska."
Lars Ohly, debattinlägg i Kommunistisk ungdoms interna tidning 1983

"Det kan vara så att inskränkningar av de demokratiska fri- och rättigheterna är den enda möjligheten för arbetarklassen att slå vakt om den största demokratiska reformen vi känner till - avskaffandet av utsugningen och kapitalismen."
Lars Ohly, debattinlägg i Kommunistisk ungdoms interna tidning

"...i ett samhälle som vårt där kommunisterna framställs som odemokratiska, Sovjetunionen som en diktatur..."
Lars Ohly, om Sverige

"Kuba är ett fantastiskt exempel på hur man under mycket fattiga förhållanden kan uppnå folkligt deltagande och ekonomisk rättvisa."
Lars Ohly, Dagens Politik 27/12 1996

"Vi får aldrig acceptera ett demokratibegrepp som står höjt över klasskampen."
Lars Ohly, debattinlägg i Kommunistisk ungdoms interna tidning 1983

"När vi skriver om de socialistiska länderna i Röd Press bör vi inrikta oss på att avslöja borgarnas myter....inte sprida dem vidare."
Lars Ohly, efter en kritisk artikel i Röd press om bristande demokrati i DDR

"De socialistiska staterna utgör genom sin existens och sitt exempel ett bålverk för freden och socialismens sak i världen."
Lars Ohlys tal till KU kongressen 1983

"Vi förblindas inte och förvånas inte när vi ser att det socialistiska samhällsbygget är förknippat med problem. Vi har lärt oss att uppbygget av socialismen inte är någon tebjudning."
Lars Ohly, tal till KU kongressen 1983

"I ett samhälle där arbetarklassen har makten måste inte nödvändigtvis en utvidgning av de demokratiska fri- och rättigheterna gynna arbetarklassen."
Lars Ohly, debattinlägg i Kommunistisk ungdoms interna tidning 1983

Och till sist:

"Ingen i vänsterpartiet har Lenin som förebild."
Lars Ohly, 27/12 1998 i Dagens Nyheter

"Jag står för en modern leninism baserad på klasskamp."
Lars Ohly, våren 1999. Intervju i engelska tidskriften Renewal

14:37 - PROFIT LIFTS US UP WHERE WE BELONG: SpaceShipOne won the $10 million Ansari X Prize by becoming the first private, manned vehicle to fly into space twice in two weeks. Now space is open not just to the starship Enterprise, but to free enterprise. Once again we get proof of the power of pride, profit and competition to take mankind further. After all, Charles Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic in 1927 inspired by the $25 000 Orteig prize. Edward Hudgins writes about this in Washington Times.

11:21 - A MORE PROTECTIONIST EUROPE: The enlargement of the EU was supposed to create an open Europe. The result may be the opposite, shows Håkan Nordström in a convincing new report (pdf) from the Swedish National Board of Trade. The convinced free traders, like Estonia and Latvia, are very small, and big countries like Poland and Hungary are much more protectionist. Furthermore, the extension of CAP to these countries has turned emerging markets into clients, hungry for subsidies. Incentives work. How disappointing. Let’s hope that the future Turkish entry will follow another pattern.

10:39 - ERIXON OM (M): Dick Erixon håller inte med mig om att (m) undlåter att skaffa sig ett förändringsmandat:

"Visst. Varken debattartikeln 4 okt eller budgetmotionen är några retoriska eller ideologiska mästerverk. Men högtflygande planer, stora visioner och storstilade systemskiften har visat sig skrämma bort väljarna och resulterat i en evig ökenvandring."

Om det ska finnas en poäng med maktskifte måste det bygga på att man börjar bryta upp enpartistaten och dess institutioner, inte på att den bara får nya styresmän. Det är alltså bara att hoppas att folkpartiet, centern och kristdemokraterna får så stort inflytande som möjligt i en ny borgerlig regering.

13:37 - MODERATERNA GÖR EN TONY OLSSON: Idag uttalar jag mig i Expressen (s 24) om moderaternas nya linje för en korporativ arbetsmarknad och mot stora skattesänkningar (ej på nätet):

"– Tony Olsson och hans kompisar hade en briljant plan för hur de skulle kunna bryta sig ut ur fängelset. På samma sätt har moderaterna en briljant plan för hur man tar makten.
– Men Tony Olsson hade ingen som helst beredskap för vad han skulle göra sen, satt bara där i någon ladugård tills de kom och hämtade honom.
Johan Norberg tror att moderaterna mycket väl kan lyckas ta makten genom sin charmoffensiv mot mittenväljarna.
– Men då har moderaterna inget förändringsmandat när de väl har fått makten. De kommer inte att ha någon möjlighet att röra sig eller förflytta sig. De har ju köpt fackets ställning och mycket av den socialdemokratiska politiken. Och då får de väl sitta där i kanslihuset tills någon kommer och plockar bort dem igen."
(Intervjuad av Christian Holmén)

11:05 - EAT LIKE A LIBERAL: I am often asked which political party I am closest to. I usually say the Estonian Reform Party. But I am not quite sure if I am restricted to Swedish parties. But according to a new survey, I am somewhere between the moderates and folkpartiet, and farthest from centern and the social democrats. At least when it comes to eating habits.

10:11 - QUI S´EXCUSE S´ACCUSE: The worst thing about Ohly’s fetisch for dictatorships is that he won’t be criticised in the least for it by his own party. Most of them share it. In the documentary, their youth leader said that Cuba – a tyranny that has murdered 70 000 of its citizens and driven every sixth Cuban in exile – is a democracy. When she had the chance to retract her comment in Debatt later that night, she clarified that Cuba was neither a democracy nor a dictatorship (!?).

The Leftist representatives excuse for Ohly’s behaviour in the debates since is to talk about something else. Multinational corporations are enormous and America has problems with its election system, for example. What is that? "Ok, we have murdered 100 million since 1917, but on the other hand, Nike is increasing its sales of shoes, and there is a lot of gerrymandering in Texas, so he that is without guilt, let him cast the first stone…"

They kept coming back to the fact that you have to understand communism as a reaction to the US and Israel – apparently we need small tyrannies as bulwarks against the virus of democracy and capitalism.

Åsa Linderborg, presented as an independent historian in Uppdrag granskning’s debate, but in fact active in the left party – has taken care of a lot of the damage control. She said then, and again today in P1 Morgon, that we have to understand Ohly’s views in the context of the 1980’s and the cold war, when you had to choose between the west and the east. This is the most embarrassing apology of all.

I could understand if someone is sufficiently stupid and insensitive to excuse dictatorships long after they are gone, and people don’t remember how vicious they were. But this was at the time when you saw the brutality of communism with your own eyes, when there was a clear choice between democracy and oppression, between freedom and murder – and you’re supposed to be excused for choosing murder and oppression? Please. Lars Ohly’s only comfort is that he is not the only one making a fool of himself right now.

09:18 - SWEDEN´S QUISLING:  Yesterday’s Uppdrag Granskning showed that the left party’s boss, Lars Ohly has lied about his past and his present. He has pretended that his communism is an idealistic, utopian dream, never related to the real communist states. But his old party-friends explained that he was the one who always stopped all forms of criticism against dictatorships and mass murder. He used to call the communist states "liberated territory", was sad when the Berlin Wall came down and said that "limitations of democratic and civil liberties can be used in the interest of the working class". As late as five years ago he called himself a "Leninist" and four years ago he personally stopped a condemnation of Stalin’s crimes, and an apology from the party, for how it treated his Swedish victims.

How can someone act like this, and still guarantee the whole Swedish people with a soothing, comforting voice that he has always been a convinced and strong champion for democracy? I think it’s more to this than lies, revisionism and memory loss. And I think it is worse. Ohly said explicitly that by democracy he does not precisely mean civil liberties and free elections. He means "economic democracy" – in other words destroying private property rights and giving the government complete control over the economy. And therefore it is right to limit liberal democracy and human rights to pursue a greater value – socialism (which is "true democracy"). The disturbing thing is that this is exactly the way Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Castro and all the other communists reasoned, and that is why they became mass murderers.

From what we heard yesterday, I do not have the slightest doubt that Lars Ohly would have been a Quisling had the Soviets invaded Sweden - after all Sweden was an "imperialist state" opposed to the "liberated territories". And remember: The social democrats rule Sweden together with this guy.

17:50 - THIS IS NOT A JOKE: The latest suffering Swedish minority is…the diplomats. In Nigeria, Swedish diplomats complain that it is "too warm to play golf in the middle of the day", and in India they find "the amount of advertising is trying" on the the cable TV, and in Russia they complain that "meat is cut up in a different way and is displayed in an unappetizing manner". There is an incentive to complain: The more “hardship points” the diplomats get, the more money they make, Paul O´Mahony reports.

16:59 - NOBEL LIBERALS: On Monday we get to know who wins the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. There is a lot of speculation right now. Two possible candidates are Robert Barro and William Baumol – two great free-market economists who really deserve it. But I wouldn´t rule out, and I would also welcome, Paul Romer or Jagdish Bhagwati.

16:10 - OTHER PEOPLE´S OPINIONS: Earlier today, Obs in Swedish radio broadcasted my review of Kenneth Hermele’s attack on the World Bank and the IMF, in time for their 60th anniversary. We are both critical, but he is because he thinks they are too market-friendly, and I am because they are too lavish and interventionist.

An interesting thing: On the first page of his book, Hermele writes that the IMF "has almost become synonymous with evil itself for poor around the world". Really? The biggest survey I am familiar with, from the Pew Research Center (pdf), shows that more than 60 percent of the Asians and more than 70 percent of the Africans think that the IMF and the WB have a positive effect on their country.

It’s difficult to try to speak for the suffering, when the suffering are of another opinion.

13:47 - COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY: I had guessed that the post-communists in Sweden would try to steal the attention from part two of Uppdrag Granskning tomorrow, where their chariman’s faiblesse for communist dictatorships and the mass murderer Lenin will be exposed. But I couldn’t imagine that they would be so desperate and silly that they would do it by proposing a higher tax on men than women, because men are supposedly collectively responsible for the violence against women.

Here are some other groups who should pay higher taxes if you agree with this leftist, collectivist perspective, because the groups are over-represented in the crime statistics: Poor people, unemployed, immigrants and the mentally ill. And once again we see why it’s such a short step from communism to fascism.

11:31 - THE SWEDISH MODEL: Here are some facts about Sweden for you non-Swedes to keep in mind when Newsweek say that Sweden is the best country on earth, compiled by Fredrik Segerfeldt and written about by Johnny Munkhammar – the two strongest ideologues at the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise:

"Since ten years, the number of companies decreases with, on average, 10 a day. None of Sweden’s 50 largest companies was started after 1970. Of a population of 9 million, only just above 3 million go to work on an average working-day. The Government Social Insurance Office supports 26 per cent of the population. Sweden has lost 100 000 jobs in the industry in three years; if that continues, Swedish industry will have zero employees in the year 2033. In 1999, Sweden was no 4 in the international investment league, in 2002 it had fallen to no 27."

09:31 - SWEDEN´S P J O´ROURKE: Last month was the big breakthrough for blogs in Sweden. The tipping point was the first newspaper blog, PJ just nu. I was almost alone in Sweden one and a half year ago, but now everybody seems to have a blog of his own. I wouldn´t be surprised to hear that my grandmother has a blog somewhere. Few blogs are interesting in the long run, and few give that extra value, like articles and background material. But one of the latest additions is definitely worth bookmarking, Henrik Alexandersson. Alexandersson is a hilarious, radical libertarian. Sweden’s P J O’Rourke – but with a nice, bizarre twist.

09:05 - A LITTLE STUDY OF HIS OWN: In Svenska Dagbladet today, Johan Rönnblom says that he has made his own study of libraries, which shows a big dominance for free-market books. Nice try. But actually, it isn´t very interesting to compare the biggest free-market books with the smallest left-wing books. With such a distorted selection of books I could show that the libraries are completely dominated by feminist, Christian astrophysicists.

Rönnblom also makes ironic remarks about the fact that one of my books is included in our study. Am I only bitter because few libraries buy that one? No, it’s included because it’s the biggest free-market book at libraries. If we exclude it from the study, the left-wing bias is even stronger than our study shows.

14:06 - WB & IMF - SHRINK OR SINK? (OR GIVE THEM MORE POWER?): Today, the annual meeting of the IMF and the World Bank takes place in Washington DC. And I just read one of many left-wing attacks on these institutions, Kenneth Hermele’s Världens oordning. It is an often perceptive discussion of the problem with huge bureaucracies, trying to remote control other economies, handling other people’s money, stepping in to save miserable economies and failed investments – and therefore in effect subsidising bad policies and risky speculations, because it’s in their own interest to have more tasks and bigger budgets.

I agree. It is sometimes said that the EU – because of its democratic deficit – would not be accepted as a member of the EU. I would say that if WB and IMF came to WB and IMF asking for money, they would not get any, because their anti-market policies are too destructive – until they hinted that they might change the policies, and then they would get all the resources they asked for, no matter if change takes place or not.

But I have never understood why the left-wing critics don’t conclude that these institutions must be downsized or abolished, instead they think they should be given even more power – Hermele want them to control the currency transactions and the balance of payments throughout the world, for example. The left likes government control, they only want to be in charge of it themselves. It is as if Hermele doesn’t understand his own arguments against centralisation and bureaucratic incentives, and that all those problems will magically disappear when we find “good rulers”. But a car that has broken down will not work better because we get a better driver.

11:40 - FULL DISCLOSURE - FOR LIBERALS ONLY: In a letter to the editor published by many papers, a Jan Svärd has criticised Swedish television for presenting me as an "author" when I discussed my library article. Apparently, they should have presented me as a dangerous neo-liberal working at the evil think-tank Timbro. Today, I reply that by traditional standards, a person is presented as an author after two books, so after six books I should be pretty safe.

And if I my political residence is mentioned (which I do not object to, of course) why don’t Svärd demand that they also say that my opponent, the chairman of the Swedish Library Association, is a social democrat MP?

The reason is obvious: Jan Svärd presents himself as a "writer". And that is a very funny example of "don’t do as I do, do as I say". Svärd is in fact an active social democrat, and a former vice mayor of Malmö…

04:13 - TAKE THE GLOBAL TEST: In the debate, Kerry spoke about military action being subjected to a "global test". No one seemed to understand what this was, but now you can take the global test here.

17:49 - WHEN THE LEFT IS RIGHT: Which European country is liberalising the fastest? Here is a surprise candidate: Spain, under the new socialist government. Ok, it is not that interested in economic liberalisation, but what it lacks in economic sense, it makes up for with an important plan to end the Catholic Church’s domination over people’s lives.

Yesterday, the Spanish government proposed legislation that allows same-sex couples to marry and to adopt children. And this end to discrimination against homosexuals is only part of a wider plan of secularisation of Spainish policies. The socialists plan to make it easier for couples to divorce, make abortion easier to obtain, liberalise embryo research, end compulsory religious education in public schools, and reduce state subsidies to the church.

Under such circumstances, transfer of power at every election is beginning to sound like a good idea. First the right can liberalise the economy, and then the left can liberalise cultural policies, and then the right can start on the economy again. At least it works in theory to take the best from each side. But I guess the problem in the world is that the left and the right often bring out their worst side.

I come to think of the old story of the woman who said to George Bernard Shaw that they should produce a child, because it would have his great intelligence and her great body, to which he replied: "My dear woman, what if the child inherits my body and your intelligence?"

12:46 - IN KONFLIKT WITH BUSH: The radio show Konflikt was more interesting than usual today, with reports on self-criticism in the Arab media. But as usual Cecilia Uddén couldn’t help a Freudian anti-Bush slip. She could have asked Carl Bildt: "Don’t you think that Kerry would be better for the world than Bush?" But in fact, she asked him: "Don’t you think it is self-evident that Kerry would be better for the world than Bush?" ("Tycker du inte att det vore självklart att Kerry vore bättre för världen än Bush i det här läget?") Yes, we’ve been there before.

03:05 - THE DEBATE: Several times I have been asked about my reaction to the Bush/Kerry debate. But I have been reluctant to write anything, because I don´t find them interesting as individuals or debaters, and they both failed to outline a strong, principled agenda. But I’ve been asked again and again. And I was asked again an hour ago, after a late dinner – Ok, it wasn’t interesting, but what was most interesting? Well, if I have to say anything, I would mention the fact that both Kerry and Bush mixed up bin Laden and Saddam Hussein at least once...

13:36 - GOTT FÖREDÖME: Ett pressmeddelande damp nyss ned från nätverket som har avslöjat Michael Moores lögner och förvanskningar:

"Det nystartade nätverket ´Pro Veritate´ (För Sanningen) är partipolitiskt obundet och har som enda mål att påvisa de faktafel och förvanskningar av verkligheten, som förekommer i amerikanen Michael Moores propagandafilm ´Fahrenheit 9/11´. Nätverket lanserades under namnet ´Pro Veritas´ men det har i Aftonbladet den 30/9 uppdagats att namnet "Pro Veritas" inte har varit korrekt. Eftersom ´pro´ är en preposition som styr ablativ skulle vi istället ha tagit det mer språkligt korrekta namnet ´Pro Veritate´.

´Vi är av åsikten att sanningen alltid måste fram. Därför ber vi nu om ursäkt och ändrar omgående vårt namn. Till skillnad från Michael Moore sväljer vi nu vår stolthet och medger att vi har haft fel. Vi hoppas innerligt att Moore kommer att ta sitt förnuft tillfånga och gör detsamma.´, säger Marcus Åvall, samordnare för nätverket.

11:22 - WELCOME: Sweden just got a new liberal blog, partly in English, Munkhammar.org. Johnny Munkhammar is a good friend and the strongest ideologue at the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, Svenskt Näringsliv. He says he will write in favour of “personal liberty, a free economy and society, open borders and limited government”. If you want to understand what it will be like, he is a lot like me, on a day when the EU has done something good for liberalisation and the unions have destroyed a couple of small-sized businesses – and I try to convince people of this by examples from Långtidsutredningen (the government’s long-term survey).

More inside information: One of America’s leading conservatives thinks that Johnny should be the next James Bond, after Brosnan.